Leaning into Lent
with some literary loves
Dear Friends,
Happy Ash Wednesday!
This is one of my favorite days of the liturgical year and leads into one of my favorite seasons. I love that Lent forces us to slow down, to prepare, to fast, give alms, and pray.
One of the ways I have honored this season is to read a poetry collection or anthology. Malcolm Guite has a wonderful anthology which includes some of his own original poems (his sonnets collection Sounding the Seasons is also golden for keeping liturgical time). Janet Morley too is one that I return to again and again. Those wait by my bedside even during Ordinary Time.
This year, I picked up a new collection: Hearing God in Poetry by Richard Harries. I am unfamiliar with this particular author but he does write about theology and the arts quite a bit so I’m giving this book a go.
The first poem for Ash Wednesday is Thomas Hardy’s Surview which is copied below. I believe it is a mix between a villanelle and a ballad with the repeating refrain “said my own voice talking to me.” Scripture is mingled with poetry as the speaker contemplates sticks burning in a fire and how they may not have lived up to Christ’s commandments.
Surview
‘Cogitavi vias meas’
A cry from the green-grained sticks of the fire
Made me gaze where it seemed to be:
‘Twas my own voice talking therefrom to me
On how I had walked when my sun was higher –
My heart in its arrogancy.‘You held not to whatsoever was true,’
Said my own voice talking to me:
‘Whatsoever was just you were slack to see;
Kept not things lovely and pure in view,’
Said my own voice talking to me.‘You slighted her that endureth all,’
Said my own voice talking to me;
‘Vaunteth not, trusteth hopefully;
That suffereth long and is kind withal,’
Said my own voice talking to me.‘You taught not that which you set about,’
Said my own voice talking to me;
‘That the greatest of things is Charity…’
And the sticks burnt low, and the fire went out,
And my voice ceased talking to me.
For the kiddos, I purchased Twas the Season of Lent and we’ll review the old standby, L’Engle’s The Glorious Impossible.
What literaries will you be reading for Lent?